friendly rodents

after grabbing my mail, i failed to watch where i was walking as i returned to my apartment. i felt my foot hit something and i tripped a bit but kept walking before it registered. i wondered what i'd hit, so i looked around and was surprised to find a little stunned squirrel thingy. he had a big bushy tail but a body like a kangaroo rat: long hindlegs, shorter forelegs and a body that bent more than a squirrel's. i think it *was* a squirrel because we have lots of those here and rather few kangaroo rats. besides, kangaroo rats have rat's tails and this guy had a squirrel tail, and his hindlegs were not quite so long as a kangaroo rat's. i think maybe he was just an adolescent squirrel, or maybe a squirrel with birth defects.

i bent down and apologized to him for kicking him. he seemed unconvinced so i repeated my apology. he behaved very unsquirrel-like. he was not at all afraid of me. after i'd talked with him for a while (yes, talked with him, not to him) i backed slowly away. he follewed me. we walked around the garage a bit, he following me. i wanted to pet him but was afeared of catching or spreading a disease.

i decided to take him upstairs with me and perhaps make of him a pet or a dinner. i located an empty shoe box (actually, it was my shoe box. i had thrown it out this morning but the trash hadn't been collected) and tried to get him to walk into it, but he didn't want to. so i re-tossed the shoebox and headed toward the elevator. my rodent followed. i openened the elevator and stepped inside. gingerly, the kangaroo-squirrel-rat followed me inside the elevator. he looked around a bit and as the doors began to close, he slowly darted out. the doors of my elevator tend not to stop for anything less than 100lbs of opposing force, so i slapped them hard open to keep them from crushing my furry friend.

he hop-scurried across the lot and under some stairs. i followed him and brought him out from under the stairs. he hopped across the lot and toward the dumpster. a resident approached in his car and i made sure that the resident saw the rodent. the guy in the car turned wide to avoid the rat-thing.

finally, i decided it was time to go, i was going to miss my run if i stayed down there any longer. i waved and said goodbye to my pal and i left.

many hours later, after returning from the theater and taking a leak in my apartment (bathroom), i went back to the garage with a flashlight but could not find my squirrel-rat friend. maybe tomorrow?